Closed and sealed objects such as shipping containers may gain or lose pressure due to a variety of factors. For example, a sealed container of waste material may gain pressure due to the biological and/or chemical make-up of the contents stored in the container along with such factors as time and temperature. It is often undesirable to penetrate the closed system for the purpose of determining or relieving pressure in the container. For example, it may be dangerous to open a sealed container in which the pressure has significantly increased, or opening the container may otherwise damage the contents of the sealed container. What is needed therefore is an inexpensive, in-situ pressure sensing element that can be interrogated by a detection mechanism external to the object in which the sensing element is disposed.